


An Equal Partner

by catyah



Category: Riptide (TV)
Genre: First Time, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-19
Updated: 2011-03-19
Packaged: 2017-10-17 02:45:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/172082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catyah/pseuds/catyah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Murray asks only that he be treated as an equal partner.</p><p>This was written for the Zebra-Con fanfiction contest in 2007.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Equal Partner

Murray Bozinsky climbed over the railing onto the Riptide, his movements as awkward as always, but perhaps faster than usual. His face was set as it had been for the last hour, showing a carefully blank expression to the world. To those who knew him, however, his anger was clear.

Behind him, his partners traded unhappy and confused looks, waiting until he was safely aboard before stepping easily onto the deck themselves. They followed him through the open door and into the main salon, expecting to see only his back disappearing down the stairs and the slam of his stateroom door behind him.

Instead, they stopped cold in the doorway at the sight of their friend standing there waiting for them.

They had been able to tell that he was angry while they were still surrounded by police and curious bystanders; his uncharacteristic silence, the tight straight line of his mouth, and the flash of his dark eyes were obvious clues, though others who saw him would have only seen that he was tense. That would have made sense to anyone who had witnessed what had happened.

"Murray," Cody said, "what's up? You've -- "

"Shut up, Cody," Murray replied, looking past him to stare at Nick.

Nick and Cody glanced at each other, pained and still bewildered by the coldness of their good friend's voice, now that he had finally broken his silence, then stepped the rest of the way into the room. Cody pulled the door closed behind them; there was no need for the neighbors to hear about this, whatever this was.

It didn't take long to start.

"How could you?" Murray asked, still glaring at Nick, who blinked. "How could you do that to me?"

"Do... what, Murray?"

"What you did! What you always do, both of you, if it's not one of you it's another, and you do it to me every time. I can't believe you did it again, but I don't know why I think I can't believe it, because you always do it." Here, Murray stopped, still staring at them as if waiting for an apologetic response. "Well?"

"Do you know what he's talking about?" Cody asked Nick.

Nick shrugged. "No."

"See? See? This is what I'm talking about," Murray said, gesturing wildly toward them. "You always do that, too! You don't know what I'm talking about, so you ask each other instead of just asking me, I just don't believe it, but there you are, doing it again, just like you always do, and --"

"Murray."

"What?"

"What are you talking about?" Cody asked, calmly and slowly.

"Oh, like you don't know. How many years have we been working together, and you still say you don't know! I don't --"

Murray was getting more and more aggravated, and so were his friends, since no answers seemed to be forthcoming. Luckily, Nick knew just the right tone of voice to stop him in mid-rant, or at least to slow him down.

"Murray." It was the same one word that Cody had used only seconds before, but the addition of his calm-but-with-anger-and-impatience-lurking-just-under-the-surface voice stopped Murray in his tracks. "What?"

Murray was still clearly angry, but at least now he was calm enough that they would get some answers.

"The stakeout," he said. He was speaking slowly, as if to people who were being completely dense, but this didn't last long. Soon his words were coming faster and faster again. "You let me come along on the stakeout --"

"You usually come along on stakeouts," Cody said.

Murray ignored the interruption. "And you acted like I'm a partner, and equal to you both --"

"You are, Murray."

The skinny scientist ignored Nick's comment, as well.

"When it's clear to everyone, including me, that you don't treat me like that out in the field," he continued. "It's like that every time we go anywhere where we might have to face any sort of dangerous situation!"

"Dangerous situation," Cody said quietly to Nick.

Nick nodded at the clue that they'd both caught, but neither of them still fully understood Murray's continuing (and steadily rising) infuriation.

"I had everything completely under control at the stakeout today, and you know it! I had my gun loaded and ready, I could have defended myself when that... that thug --"

"Shot at you," Nick told him.

"And you! Flying at me out of the blue, knocking me down and landing on me!"

"I kept you from getting shot!"

"And who asked you to do that?" Murray asked with a glare.

Nick and Cody gaped at each other and then at him. When Nick spoke again, it was slowly and with a puzzled look, wanting to make sure he was understanding Murray correctly.

"So -- you didn't want me to keep you from getting shot?"

"No! I mean -- oh, never mind!"

Murray clearly wanted to storm away, but Cody stopped him.

"We've always done it that way, Murray. Yeah, sure we're a little protective of you," Cody said, ignoring Murray's snort at that last comment, "but you can't blame Nick for not wanting you to get shot."

"That's another thing, Nick! How could you push me out of the line of -- of danger, as you insist on calling it, and not protect Cody! Why don't you stop and think about that for a moment, huh?"

"Well, Cody was already safe, out of the line of fire. I needed to protect you!"

A moment after Nick said this, he found himself backing away in surprise as Murray moved quickly towards him.

"You see what I mean?" Murray asked, his arms flailing as he stomped across the room. "Always trying to protect me, shield me from danger, when anybody can see that I can take care of myself, when I'm supposed to be your partner! Equal partners, fifty-fifty-fifty, everything split among the three of us, ha! Yeah, right! If that's not typical, I don't know what is! You're driving me crazy, both of you, I can't go on like this!"

Nick looked around in surprise to find himself backed up against a wall, Murray looming over him. He had somehow never taken notice of the fact that Murray, the skinny, geeky guy whom he and Cody sometimes referred to as the 'little guy' was taller than he was, and nearly as broad across the shoulders.

He should have been afraid, but there was something in Murray's eyes, something so needy, crying out for protection, whether he knew it, or could admit it, or not. Cody was approaching from behind Murray, but Nick shook his head at him, and puzzled, the blond stopped.

"Okay, Murray," Nick said. Murray stopped and looked at him askance. "We'll figure this out, all right?"

"Yeah, sure. Suuuuuure we will," Murray said. "You'll tell me that you'll change, and the next time something like this happens, the same thing will happen all over again! It's like that every time there's a fight or guns get drawn or you have to run into some dangerous situation, or --"

"Why are you getting so upset?" Nick blasted back at him suddenly, surprising both Murray and Cody. "We've always done it this way and you've never gotten this angry!"

"Maybe I'm not angry," Murray blared back at him, "did you ever think of that? That maybe I was so fucking turned on by you risking your own life to save mine that I can't even think? For me, that's saying something! Did you ever think for a second that maybe I love you?"

"Wh--"

"Did it ever occur to you that either disappearing or getting fucking angry at you is the only way I have of expressing myself to you when I feel like that? No, of course not! Because the two of you are together and I know that I don't have any part in that, I just have to be satisfied with loving you from afar and having you never know? It's just the same as the two of you being partners and me being like an assistant partner to both of you, always getting left behind when it comes to action! No matter what kind of action it is!"

"But --"

"You wouldn't have a single clue how I felt, because I could never stand the idea of breaking the two of you apart or trying to nose in on what you've got together. Do you think I don't know how lucky I am that I can love the two of you from as close as I am? That I'd go to bed every night and think about how it feels to have either of you pat my shoulder or rub my back or tell me what a good job I was doing, or how it felt when you pushed me out of the way and landed on top of me, and risked your life to save me? Did you ever think about that for even a second? Of course not!"

"Murray --"

"That I've dreamt of being as close to you as I am right now, just so I could... I never would, but if I could, even for just a second, I'd -- I'd -- " Murray paused, breathing hard as Nick stared at him and Cody watched them both. After a moment, Murray sucked in a deep breath and spoke again, consideringly, more to himself than either of his friends. "Oh, fuck it. I'm never going to get this chance again --"

He cupped Nick's face in his hands, and for a moment, the stress and tenseness seemed to leave the slender man's body. They were nearly nose to nose by this time, and after a hesitant and awkward moment in which Murray moved his face from side to side, trying to find just the right angle, their mouths met.

There were muffled whimpers and growls of appreciation as well as of a needy anger, and then Murray jerked his mouth away.

"What the hell am I doing? Fuck, I shouldn't -- god, I -- I want --"

That said, he held Nick's face tighter, and resumed the kiss as Nick's hands began to move. At first, they had stayed at his sides, almost in shock, then patted at Murray's back through his old brown suitcoat, then moved downward in slow strokes to grip Murray's ass, pulling him close.

Murray shook his head from side to side, biting softly at Nick's lower lip.

"No," he said into the stronger man's mouth. Still holding him close, controlling their kiss, Murray released him for only a second to move Nick's hands away and to speak one word clearly. "Mine."

Letting go of Nick's wrists, Murray took hold of Nick's ass, pulling him forward to press their cocks together. Their mouths separated and came back together again and again as they writhed and struggled, and at least once, they both threw their heads back in tandem, one gasping and moaning, the other nearly howling.

Nick glanced down toward their feet with a puzzled expression before Murray urged him into another kiss, which he accepted eagerly.

Cody craned his neck curiously, surprised to find that Nick was being held up, almost entirely off the floor by Murray's grasp, his toes only barely touching ground.

Murray carried most of his height in his legs, but neither Nick nor Cody had ever considered how much strength he had. Maybe it was at least partially caused by the adrenaline coursing through his body. What mattered was that his effort brought Nick's cock into alignment with his, and was therefore worth any amount of exertion that it took.

"Oh fuck," Murray cried out. "Fuck, fuck, I shouldn't -- "

They clung together anyway, arching and twisting, their hands always in motion. Nick ran his hands across Murray's back and hips, only to have the slender man reach back to brush them away. The next moment, he seemed to be trying to slip a hand between them, but Murray groaned low in his throat at that, and Nick withdrew it again, giving himself up to Murray's gentle touches and gropes.

Nick began to gasp and struggled to arch his entire body up and out of Murray's embrace, finally groaning and then crying out as he came.

Cody could see that Murray's eyes were wide and worried, and he seemed to be trying to pull away, but Nick took control of the kiss. The blond was watching them intently, and it was clear from the motion of Nick's face that he was using his tongue now, twisting it around to taste every part of Murray's mouth. He leaned forward to stare, knowing that Murray's orgasm wouldn't be far away.

Sure enough, only seconds later, Murray's legs began to shake, and his climactic cries came out in almost silent gasps and wordless cries when they paused for breath between kisses.

His hands slipped away from Nick's ass as his grip gave way, sliding up the man's back, under his t-shirt for an all too brief caress of the beautiful, sweat-slicked muscles there.

And then his hands dropped to his sides, his shoulders slumped, and his gaze, which had varied between being tightly locked with Nick's and his eyes being squeezed closed, dropped to the floor.

"Murray --?" Nick asked.

"Fuck," Murray said again, but it was a different sound, sorrowful instead of the desperate cries from before. "Fuck, I did it, I shouldn't have, I'm sorry, I never -- " He paused and raised his eyes just long enough to stare at the large damp patch on the front of Nick's pants. The wetness on the front of his own dark jeans was almost invisible, but the three of them knew it was there. "Fuck," he repeated, "oh, fuck. Nick, I didn't -- Cody. Cody, I -- apologize. I know that you and Nick belong to each other. I never -- my fault. I shouldn't have -- I can go, I'll pack, I should -- fuck, I -- "

He looked wildly from one of his partners to the other and then down at the floor again, his cheeks flushed dark red.

"Murray," Nick said again, his voice strained and desperate, seeming to be at a loss for what he should say next. "I --Cody?"

A hand gripped Murray's shoulder, and he glanced up to find Cody standing very close to him. The scientist trembled, but did his best to bravely meet Cody's blue eyes.

"My turn now. Please, Murray," he said, unzipping his pants.


End file.
